AMD Athlon 64 4800+ X2 - Dual Core CPU

On the 25th of April AMD announced loads of dual core stuff. Besides the launch of the dual core 8xx series Opteron it also announced the 2xx dual core Opteron and the dual core Athlon 64 X2. Today we’re a step closer to the launch of Athlon 64 X2 but it’s not here quite yet - you’ll have to wait until June for that pleasure. If only there was a large international IT trade show that started at the end of May why, that would be the perfect venue to announce a new processor.

Until the official launch happens we won’t be able to get our hands on a fully fledged Athlon 64 X2 PC, so what we have here is a technical preview based on an AMD press kit of an Asus A8N SLI Deluxe motherboard, an Athlon 64 X2 4800+ and 1GB of Corsair 3200XL Pro memory.

There are four processors in the Athlon 64 X2 family which share a number of features with each other, and with existing models of Athlon 64. Athlon 64 X2 continues to use socket 939, the fabrication process is 90nm (.09 micron) using SOI (Silicon on Insulator), the 128-bit memory controller is compatible with PC1600, PC2100, PC2700 and PC3200 DDR, although you’d be barking mad to use anything but top notch memory, and there’s one bi-directional 1GHz Hyper Transport link. This gives an effective data bandwidth of 14.4GB/sec (8GB/sec x1 HyperTransport link + 6.4GB/sec memory bandwidth). X2 has 64KB of L1 instruction and 64KB of L1 data cache, just like Athlon 64.

The second core raises the transistor count to 233.2 million, but thanks to the 90nm fabrication process the die size is only 199 square millimetres. Compare that to the 130nm SOI Athlon 64 4000+ and Athlon 64 FX-55 which have cores that use 105.9 million transistors but which have an area of 193 square mm and you’ll see what an effective die shrink can bring to the party.

The Athlon 64 X2 4800+ has a nominal operating voltage of 1.35-1.40V and a TDP (Thermal Design Power) of 110W which compares very favourably to the FX-55 at 104W and the 4000+ at 89W.

Add in support for SSE3 and a revised memory controller to help compatibility with a broader range of memory modules and what you’ve effectively got is a pair of the new Venice cores tied together with the dual Opteron crossbar.

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Dubbed Debonaire, the new desktop theme uses dark-ish elements for the window titlebar and panel. Somehow it resembles the look and feels of the acclaimed Arc GTK+ theme, and it makes the Q4OS operating system more modern than the standard look offered by the Trinity Desktop Environment.

today's leftovers

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The U.S. Commerce Department's National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has issued the second draft of the proposed update to the Framework for Improving Critical Infrastructure Cybersecurity—also known as the Cybersecurity Framework. The American National Standards Institute (ANSI) encourages all relevant stakeholders to submit draft comments to NIST by the deadline on Friday, January 19, 2018.

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There is no doubt Facebook is one of the most popular and dynamic social network platform in the modern Internet era. It has revolutionized technology, social networking, and the future of how we live and interact. With Facebook, We can connect, communicate with one another, instantly share our memories, photos, files and even money to anyone, anywhere in the world. Even though Facebook has its own official messenger, some tech enthusiasts and developers are developing alternative and feature-rich apps to communicate with your buddies. The one we are going to discuss today is Caprine. It is a free, elegant, open source, and unofficial Facebook messenger desktop app built with Electron framework.

It turns out that if firing up KDE's KWin Wayland compositor without XWayland support, it can start up so fast that it causes problems.
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NetworkManager now has support for Intel's lean "IWD" WiFi daemon.
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Linux Foundation: Servers, Kubernetes and OpenContrail

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This is also why most in the community are happy to tamp down their competitive instincts to chip away at common difficulties. “You kind of have to,” said Michelle Noorali (pictured), senior software engineer at Microsoft and co-chair of KubeCon + CloudNativeCon North America & Europe 2017. “These problems are really hard.”

Network slicing is poised to play a pivotal role in the enablement of 5G. The technology allows operators to run multiple virtual networks on top of a single, physical infrastructure. With 5G commercialization set for 2020, many are wondering to what extend network functions virtualization (NFV) and software-defined networking (SDN) can help move network slicing forward.

Juniper Networks has announced its intent to move the codebase for OpenContrail, an open-source network virtualisation platform for the cloud, to the Linux Foundation. OpenContrail provides both software-defined networking (SDN) and security features and has been deployed by various organisations, including cloud providers, telecom operators and enterprises to simplify operational complexities and automate workload management across diverse cloud environments.

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The annual Open Source Jobs Report from Dice and The Linux Foundation reveals a lot about prospects for open source professionals and hiring activity in the year ahead. In this year’s report, 86 percent of tech professionals said that knowing open source has advanced their careers. Yet what happens with all that experience when it comes time for advancing within their own organization or applying for a new roles elsewhere?

Debian 9 Complete Screenshot Tour

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6 open source home automation tools

The Internet of Things isn't just a buzzword, it's a reality that's expanded rapidly since we last published a review article on home automation tools in 2016. In 2017, 26.5% of U.S. households already had some type of smart home technology in use; within five years that percentage is expected to double.
With an ever-expanding number of devices available to help you automate, protect, and monitor your home, it has never been easier nor more tempting to try your hand at home automation. Whether you're looking to control your HVAC system remotely, integrate a home theater, protect your home from theft, fire, or other threats, reduce your energy usage, or just control a few lights, there are countless devices available at your disposal.